SIT Study Abroad offers journalism in story-rich South Africa

November 1st, 2016   |   SIT Study Abroad

Team up with award-winning journalists to write a story that’s ready for press

SIT Study Abroad has introduced a powerful new journalism track in South Africa in collaboration with the Peabody Award-winning Round Earth Media and South Africa’s Times Media Group.

South Africa: Social and Political Transformation offers a journalism focus that pairs students with professional mentors in a story-rich setting, a melting pot of races and ethnicities that has produced one of the most famous battlegrounds for equality, democracy, and human rights, and also some of the greatest peacemakers in history, including Nobel Prize winner Albert Luthuli and Mohandas Gandhi.

This is the third journalism component offered by SIT Study Abroad. Others are Morocco: Field Studies in Journalism and New Media, and a journalism track on Serbia, Bosnia, and Kosovo: Peace and Conflict Studies in the Balkans.

Both are run in conjunction with Round Earth Media, which was founded by SIT Study Abroad advisor Mary Stucky to help develop a new generation of correspondents who cover issues and places that have disappeared from the shrinking media landscape. SIT Study Abroad students in the Morocco and Balkans programs have published stories in The New York Times, Al Jazeera, Newsweek, USA Today, Thompson Reuters, US News and World Report, and on NPR, among others.

South Africa: Social and Political Transformation focuses on the socioeconomic, political and cultural dynamics of nation-building after apartheid. Based in Durban, students travel to Johannesburg, Cape Town, Swaziland, and Maputo, Mozambique to study apartheid history; the role of memory in healing trauma; post-apartheid reconciliation; the roles of civil society, education, and media in nation building; gender and social change. The program includes lectures, isiZulu language instruction, field excursions, and homestays with South African families – all components that illuminate South Africa’s complexity and diversity.

All SIT Study Abroad students spend the final four to six weeks of their semester-long programs conducting independent or intensive language study or research. During this time, South Africa student who choose the journalism track will work with professionals to produce stories for print, video, audio, photography, and/or multimedia.

After completing coursework that covers journalism ethics and laws, they will research a story topic of their choosing under the guidance of experts from Round Earth Media and professionals from The Times Media Group, who will provide advice and mentoring at every stage of story development.

For more information on SIT Study Abroad journalism programs:

Morocco: Field Studies in Journalism and New Media

Serbia, Bosnia, and Kosovo: Peace and Conflict Studies in the Balkans

South Africa: Social and Political Transformation